1. The Female Audience
Now it's your turn: All About Steve was terrible, Bridesmaids is overrated, or any romantic comedy ever is the same predictable mess of guy-meets-girl-guy-loses-girl-guy-gets-girl-back-with-sassy black/gay friend. Why don't they make movies better you ask? Why don't they write new material? Because you are not the general audience, you are an angry nerd on a computer. The major studios run on a system of statistics and numbers, that's what's gonna make them money. If a movie about three men and their wacky misadventures in Las Vegas is a hit, make another one, make a third one, and endorse a lot of knock-offs on the chance of catching lightning in a bottle twice. Melissa McCarthy's Chris Farley "schtick" works for general audiences, that's why we get crap like Identity Thief. So why is it so hard to get a good movie out that has women in it? Why do we have to pull teeth to get one "The Heat" out of a variety of "Men Doing Actiony/Romantic/Dramatic/Funny Things"? All the female roles right now that are worth watching and talking about have gone to television. A new show is premiering on Netflix all about a woman and her experience in a woman's prison, Game of Thrones has a slew of stand out female roles, Keri Russel is amazing in The Americans, and the comedies are ripe with dozens of funny actresses. Look at how much The Big Bang Theory has changed since introducing Bernadette and Amy Farrah Fowler, some of the better stories come from the women on that show compared to the guys. Not just that but we also have New Girl, Parks and Rec, How I Met Your Mother, The Mindy Project, Awkward, and Girls, are all shows that boast great female actresses and female writing. TV offers so much more experimentation and exploration of a variety of different characters, TV is where the female roles are. Female roles seem to dominate in two kinds of movies; romantic comedies and horror films. Romantic comedies are a dime a dozen, the reason women go to these things is that it's seems to be the only kind of movie where there is a high chance of seeing more than two women in a scene at the same time possibly doing something funny. It's the only time women get a chance to relate to their own gender on film; many women talk about how they like to watch rom coms out of guilty pleasure or just for laughs which makes sense because it's the only time women are allowed to laugh at themselves as a gender or at least have a female character to reflect their ideas and emotions on to. Horror films at least take a somewhat progressive route and (while not always) make the female characters the heroes for a change. There is the typical virgin character but recent films like Mama and the Evil Dead remake both show two female characters who aren't just damsels in distress but are very capable of handling extreme situations (even after losing a hand). While lesser horror films, and there are more cheap ones than good ones, exploit female characters, the smart films at least make the characters compelling enough that your invested in their survival. How can we get the progressive mindset of great horror films and the relatable sought in romantic comedies and put them together in to one successful comedy film? It once again comes down to character over gender. Women are not afraid to admit that they like genre film, they love sci-fi, they love horror, they love comedies just as much as men. Women seek out the characters first, because that's what interests them. There seems to be a disconnect in film that wants to churn out blockbusters and franchises before considering what it is about these genres that makes them so interesting. The Heat takes a stand, and not only challenges a genre -the buddy-cop action film- but also suggests that women can do the job just as well as men. It's an inviting movie that encourages women to openly admit that they will see different kinds of female characters in different situations. It's encouraging to the writers like Katie Dippold who can break through and get their movies made. Plus with the promise of good writing comes the promise of good acting. The Heat may be rehashing the same gender topics brought on by Bridesmaids, but isn't it encouraging that we're having this conversation again only two years later instead of twenty? Isn't this the beginning of progress that we as writers and we as viewers are yearning for when it comes to movies? The box office says so and those DVD sales will say so. The female parts are far and few but it's important that we acknowledge them and keep this conversation going so that eventually we can get the funny female movies that we want.